These are the best murals of 2018

Each month, Street Art Today selects the seven best murals of the past month. 2019 is almost here, but not before we have listed the 18 most stunning murals of 2018. Enjoy!

January / GLEO – The year began with this colorful piece by Gleo, which was painted in Hermosillo (Mexico). “Primitive Soul” perfectly shows the vivid style of the Colombian muralist, which is enriched by bright colours and symbolic objects recalling the indigenous culture of her country.

March / MONKEYBIRD – This 20-meter tall stencil was realized in Paris by the French duo Monkeybirdfor the 50th anniversary of 1968’s student protests, which began in Paris and then spread all over Europe. The protagonist is designed by assembling pieces of different statues from Louvre Museum, which produced the mural.

March / BANKSY– 2018 was yet another productive year for street art icon Banksy. We especially liked this mural on the legendary Houston Bowery wall in New York City, which speaks against the controversial incarceration of the Turkish journalist Zehra Doğan, sentenced to jail for painting a picture.

April / PICHIAVO – The Spanish graffiti duo Pichiavovisited Lisbon in April for their solo show at Underdogs Gallery and gifted the city with this stunning mural. It’s painted by the sea in their typical ‘fusion’ style mixing ancient gods with colorful throw-ups derived from their background in graffiti.

April / BLU – The Italian activist BLUpainted this beautiful mural to support a protest in Valencia, where a neighborhood is being destroyed by the unstoppable growth of the port, which forced many families to move away and reshaped the urban -and therefore social- plan of the whole city.

April / JADE – The Peruvian artist Jade Riverapainted this beautiful mural in Santiago for BarrioArte Project. It’s titled “Buscando la Verdad” (Looking for Truth) and its mix of melancholy and sweetness is so powerful that it became a recurrent image in Jade’s production throughout the rest of the year.

April / VHILS – This orangutan was made in Indonesia by Vhils. Due to unregulated farming practices of palm oil in the region, there are only a few hundreds examples of Tapanuli Orangutans left and the local NGO Splash and Burn invited the Portuguese artist to address the issue to an international audience.

May / HERAKUT x ONUR & WES21 – “As long as you are standing, give a hand to those who have fallen” is written on this spectacular, eight-handed mural painted in Berlin by the German duo Herakutand the Swiss artists Onurand Wes21. A collaborative mural that invites to cooperation.

May / BOSOLETTI x YOUNG JARUS – Half of this mural is painted in negative: it requires a filter on the camera to be decrypted. When the viewer applies the ultraviolet filter, the other half of the mural switches to negative. What a great interactive collaboration by Bosoletti and Young Jarus in Berlin!

May / TELMO MIEL x JAMES BULLOUGH – Curated by Berlin’s Urban Nation, this mural isn’t just a collage of body parts from people of different nationalities, but also a cross-ocean collaboration between the Dutch duo Telmo Mieland the American artist James Bullough. Urban Nation’s UNity Project aims at visualizing similarities instead of differences.

June / OS GEMEOS – In June, Os Gemeospainted “The Giant of Düsseldorf”. The peculiarity of this colourful mural lies in the way the two Brazilian graffiti twins used the unique shape of the building. As usual, the mural is filled with their hyper-detailed yellow characters, which give life to an intricate narrative.

July / FAITH47 – On the uneven surface of a majestic building in Tenderloin (a dodgy area of San Francisco) Faith47painted a symbolic white flag in various stages of motion. Titled “The Unbound”, this artwork is inspired by today’s struggle for equality and the socio-political context of our deeply unfair society.

August / FINTAN MAGEE – An impressive mural by the Australian Fintan Mageein Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), featuring one of his surreal images. The mural depicts a man on a bike that is about to melt. This detail is soon explained by the artwork’s title: “The Heat Wave”.

August / PHLEGM – This beautiful site-specific mural by Phlegmwas painted in August on the Isle of Wight. It depicts one of Phlegm’s iconic characters holding the town of Ventnor on his back: many of Ventnor’s buildings and landscapes that inspired the work are recognizable in this amazingly detailed mural!

October / MARIO MANKEY – Realized for Berlin Mural Fest, “The Anthropocene’s Syntom” is about the human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystem, which is so significant as to constitute a new geological epoch according to some scientists. With this large-scale mural Mario Mankeyhighlights the issue of global warming and questions if humans deserve a future or not.

October / MILU CORRECH – This tribute to Ancient Greeks’ goddess Hecate was painted during Draw the Line Festival (Italy) by the Argentinian muralist Milu Correch. Hecate is associated with magic and witchcraft, which are very popular topics in all the tales and legends from that area of Southern Italy.

October / HYURO – While painting this stunning mural, Hyurowas inspired by the difficult history of the Dutch city of Heerlen, where coal mines were closed altogether during the 1950s and many people lost their jobs. However, as Japanese people do by filling the cracks of their vases with gold, the artist suggests that such experiences make us stronger.

November / ETNIK – Etnik’s abstract shapes arrived in Jacksonville (Florida) for GNV Urban Art Project. Inspired by water, which is a typical element of Florida according to the artist, this massive mural (12x45mt) refers to Plato’s geometry and his icosahedron: a solid of twenty faces, hence the title of the mural – ‘Eikosi’ – which means twenty in Greek.

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Street Art Today is a platform for promoting street art and a full-service Urban Contemporary and Street Art agency. We enjoy working with globally recognized artists on award-winning art projects. We’re also the organizers of the annual Kings Spray Street Art Festival.
Currently we're working on creating the world's largest street art museum in a former shipyard warehouse at NDSM Wharf in Amsterdam.